The project was initiated in September 2021

Our objectives were as follows

• To continue in a more official framework the actions already carried out for several years

• To encourage exchanges and interactions between our volunteers and young disabled people

• To make our volunteers aware of the difficulties of integration that young people with disabilities still face in our societies

• To learn to accept differences and to make better use of personal skills in order to build a more inclusive society

• To carry out various manual tasks and encourage creativity

• To support the following Sustainable Development Goals

  • Quality education

  • Gender equality

  • Reduced inequality

  • Responsible consumption and production

The volunteers involved

• A group of 19 high school students for the activities with Ahbab Allah

• A group of 12 students for the activities with Advance school

• A group of 13 students for the days spent at the Health & Hope oasis centre

3 different actions

1st action

• End of September:

  With Nabila, with whom we have been working for 6 years already, we choose to perform two dances that will be presented at the festival organised at the end of November. Training starts quickly to ensure the best possible preparation. Costumes and sets were made during the same period and financed by our group, but also by the generous contribution of the company Le Château-Egypt.

• From October to November the training sessions follow one another despite the problems still posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the students have known each other for several years, which helps a lot. We first meet on the terrace of the Ahbab Allah school. Soon we were able to use the Sacred Heart Theatre in Heliopolis. On 30 October a dress rehearsal was organised at the Hanaguer theatre in Zamalek.

• At the beginning of November, part of the group presents a short extract of the planned show at the press conference to officially launch the festival.

• On 19 November, we were on stage at the Hanaguer Theatre.

2nd action: 4 days at the end of October

During 4 consecutive days, a small group of volunteers goes to Advance school to work with several children there. The idea is to create together some paintings that will be exhibited during the same Awladna festival. The volunteers rotate during these 4 days and take part in the different workshops offered: rattan work and recycling of old tyres, beadwork and wool work, collage-based drawings and managing sales at the school kiosk. At the same time as accompanying disabled young people in their daily activities, our volunteers are also discovering ingenious recycling methods to which they are not accustomed.

3rd action : one day in September and another in February, spent at the Health & Hope oasis centre

In parallel to these two actions, we organise, as we have done for several years now, two days in the open air at the Health & Hope centre in Wadi Natroun. Several young girls from the Ahbab Allah school are invited to participate, as well as some families received by the centre, which offers this space dedicated to families whose children suffer from cancer.

The activities are varied: making bracelets, construction games, origami, pompons, painting and embroidery on fabric or paper, colouring and wooden dolls, dancing and singing, planting, collecting leaves and oranges in February, puppets and storytelling to conclude. All our artistic activities encourage the use of recycled products as much as possible.

These two times of exchange make it possible to confirm and weave even closer links between the young people, already involved together in the Awladna project.

Autism Awareness Day

In the same spirit, and as for several years now, in April we organised an autism awareness day at the LFC to encourage everyone to better understand this often poorly known disability: discussion and manual activities were combined to tackle this subject more effectively. On this occasion, we also sold some accessories made by the young people of Advance school; the profit of the sale would go to them and will help to buy educational material.

Further developments

These initiatives are at the heart of our project and we are keen to continue them in whatever form we can now that the pandemic is no longer limiting our outreach.